Winning Olympic Gold Is the Dream of Every Athlete. It Was a Dream Kelly

INTERVIEW Winning Olympic gold is the dream 2010 Inducted into the England Athletics of every athlete. It was a dream Kelly Hall of Fame Holmes had held since the age of 14, 2009 Named president of Commonwealth but in 2004, heading into the Athens Games England Olympic Games at 34 years of age, her 2008 Founded the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust to support athletes and dream was rapidly slipping away. young people in the UK A career punctuated by untimely 2005 Won the Laureus Award for World injuries had frustrated the British Sportswoman of the Year track star, who all too often seemed to 2005 Made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by be within touching distance of glory, Queen Elizabeth II for her services to only to have it cruelly snatched away. athletics 2004 Won double Olympic gold in the Despite a stress fracture before her first 800m and 1500m in Athens Olympic Games, a ruptured Achilles 2003 2nd place in the 800m at the World tendon at a World Championships and Championships in Paris severe injury-induced depression, she 2002 Won gold in the 1550m at the had still managed two Commonwealth Commonwealth Games in and European Cup golds, an Olympic Manchester bronze and podium finishes at World 2000 Took bronze in the 800m at the Sydney Olympic Games and European Championships by the time she stepped onto the track in the 1998 2nd place in the 1500m at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Greek capital. Lumpur Holmes was to fulfill her dream at the 1995 Took silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 800m at the World 2004 Games…twice! Winning gold in Championships in Gothenburg the 800m and 1500m, only the third 1994 Won gold in the 1500m at the woman ever to achieve this middle Commonwealth Games in Victoria distance double. The former army CAREER HIGHLIGHTS sergeant joined the ranks of Team GB’s greatest athletes – only the nation’s You won double Olympic Gold in the 800m and 1500m at the 2004 Olympic Games. What did it take to get you there? seventh woman to win an Olympic Athens 2004 was the first year in 7 that I hadn’t had an injury that stopped me from reaching my full potential, I think that gave me gold in track and field. a lot of confidence and belief that my physical attributes were at their best. During my career it was extremely hard to maintain Dame Kelly’s legacy includes five such a high level of performance in terms of training without current British records and a vast breaking down; you never know where that fine line is until you cross it. In 2004 the key was to keep my body in one piece, and there amount of charity work, helping to were a number of contributing factors, including physios, doctors, nutritionists and being a bit more meticulous myself, as an athlete, mentor disadvantaged young people thinking ‘this is your last chance to do anything, you have got to do and promising youth athletes. it right.’ 166 © Ian Waldie / Getty Images © Ian Waldie Getting there, you had to deal with a lot of disappointments. How did you deal with disappointments as an athlete? The whole of my career was a rollercoaster ride – I had some really great highs and some really bad lows but, ultimately, a lot of the The doctor should disappointments actually made me stronger and tougher. A good example was my first Olympic Games, I was 26 years old. When I have knowledge and arrived in our holding camp in Tallahassee I felt a niggle and had a bruise on my leg, I went to the team doctor and had a scan which be confident and showed that I had a stress fracture. So I had arrived there in really good shape only to be told that what I thought was a bruise was professional actually a stress fracture. That was devastating and it makes you lose that pre-competition sharpness. The doctors said to me they thought I should pull out, but I had the choice to run and risk falling 167 INTERVIEW Image: Kelly Holmes competes in the women's 800 metre final during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games. over and breaking it completely or to go home. I decided that I was going to run! I ended up coming fourth in the final and was pipped on the line for a medal. So when I left those Games I was disappointed that I’d had to run at my first Olympic Games with a stress fracture and, yes, I was disappointed with fourth; but to think that I had run three rounds with a stress fracture. I was emotionally drained and in pain from injections into the bone site, but I had come fourth against the best in the world; this drove me to think ‘I can do this, I’m good enough.’ But that cycle kept being repeated, I would get up there to being among the best in the world and something would happen and stop me from going all the way, but knowing I got so close drove me. That’s interesting, because lots of sports doctors would want to force their opinion on the athlete and say ‘I think this is what should be done and you will do this’, but you were given the options and you made the final decision. Do you think that is the best way and is it the best way for young athletes? Or do you have to be a mature Olympic athlete to be able to make that decision? Getting to a championship is the pinnacle of any year, that’s what you are training for, that’s the end point; that’s the goal. At Olympic level you train because you want to be the best. So by the time I got to an Olympic Games, I might never have got to another one it’s a four year cycle, so I decided that it would be my choice. I would / Getty Images © Mark Dadswell regret it for the rest of my life if I hadn’t run and never made it again. If something had gone wrong, I had made that choice and taken that responsibility away from the doctor. I feel it’s right that when an athlete is at that level, you give them the options, you tell them the risks and the pros and cons – but it is their choice. Athletes have a right to decide, if I had messed it up, that would have been my fault. For young athletes, there is a necessary element of guidance as they don’t tend to think about their long-term development. In my opinion, during training periods, when competition is not so important, the advice of the doctor should take precedent, particularly if something could be detrimental to the athlete’s health or there could be long-term effects, especially with adolescents. But as an adult you have to make choices in life, particularly for work and sport effectively becomes a job for athletes. Image right: Kelly Holmes celebrates her victory over Tatyana Tomashova during the women's 1500m at the 2004 IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco. Image middle: Maria de Lourdes Mutola wins gold and Kelly Holmes, silver, in the women’s 800m Final at the 9th IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2003. Image far right: Holmes runs the 800 metres at the Amateur Athletics Association's meeting at Birmingham, England. 168 Of course you have to trust the team you are working with – the things start to go wrong, but athletes do things that they shouldn’t physios, doctors, physiologist, coach etc. in that scenario? have been capable of. When you are an experienced athlete in race The most important thing is communication. If an athlete is very mode, a lot of it is in your head and it doesn’t matter what is going successful all of those people has had a part to play in it, but they on with your body. I therefore like a doctor who will say ‘look, there’s have to be able to communicate well to achieve that. When I was a chance that something might happen, but you are here to do a younger athlete I had scenarios where the coach would set the your best, so let’s get out there and we will manage you as well as training, while the physio advised different training to treat an possible.’ injury and the nutritionist would come in and say they weren’t considering my diet properly. If the team doesn’t communicate it What do you think the role of the team doctor should be? And can cause friction and at the end of the day the athlete just wants what advice would you give young sports doctors? to run fast and stay fit. I learned over time that my whole team The approach of the team doctor should depend on whether needed to know each other and speak to each other to become an they have been working with the team long-term or have been integrated team. A mature athlete who is at an Olympic standard assigned to that team and are new to the athletes. If you are has dedicated their life to the sport and they are relying on their part of the team and you know the athletes, you will know the team to help them achieve their goals. maintenance programme and the support you need to give.

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